Sounders’ Schmid on season past, season ahead

Coach Sigi Schmid and the Sounders’ front office are on the hunt for a designated player to replace Fredy Montero. At the Star of the Year event, Schmid previewed the season for SPNW.

For the first time since their inception, the Sounders will begin a season without Fredy Montero, the striker who was loaned to a team in his native Colombia as the Seattle franchise seeks to remake itself into a championship-caliber MLS club.

The man in charge is coach Sigi Schmid, who attended the 78th annual Sports Star of the Year event Jan. 26 at Benaroya Hall just before training camp opened. Before the program began, Schmid talked with Art Thiel about Montero’s departure as well as his two biggest personnel delights of the 2012 season, Andy Rose and Michael Gspurning.

The Sounders advanced out of the playoffs’ first round for the first time in the club’s four years, but were immediately thwarted in the second round by the Los Angeles Galaxy, which eventually won their second MLS Cup in a row. The regular season begins at home March 2 against Montreal.

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ArtThiel on KPLU

Kirsten Kendrick's Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:35am and 7:35am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:45pm. It also airs Saturday at 6:35am and 9:35am.